Rachael Stirling: I wish I'd asked my mother about starring in a lesbian drama - Telegraph Celebrity news Rachael Stirling: I wish I'd asked my mother about starring in a lesbian drama Rachael Stirling, daughter of Dame Diana Rigg, said she was offered little "after-care" following the risqué role in Tipping The Velvet which turned her into tabloid fodder. Rachael Stirling and Keeley Hawes in Tipping The Velvet, which caused a tabloid storm Photo: BBC By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor 7:00AM BST 27 Aug 2012 When Rachael Stirling was offered a role in lesbian drama series Tipping The Velvet, she didn’t think to consult her mother first. Had she known the drama’s risqué scenes would cause a tabloid storm and leave her struggling to be taken seriously as an actress, she would have done things differently. Stirling’s mother is Dame Diana Rigg, who knows a thing or two about life as a reluctant sex symbol after playing Emma Peel in The Avengers. “The tabloids had a field day with Tipping The Velvet, which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved,” Stirling said.

“It was a brilliant project and I don’t regret it, but there wasn’t a lot of aftercare and the long-term effects weren’t considered. Nobody sat down and said that you might find it hard to be taken seriously as an actor afterwards. “I should have asked my ma’s advice, but I was such a proud little bunny in those days.” Related Articles Stripping for the cameras 'was so freeing' 25 Aug 2012 Stirling co-starred with Keeley Hawes in Tipping The Velvet, a story of lesbian love in Victorian England based on the novel by Sarah Waters. It was broadcast by the BBC in 2002 and adapted by Andrew Davies, the screenwriter, who famously dubbed it “Pride and Prejudice with dirty bits”. Stirling was a little-known actress when she got the part. She told a Sunday newspaper: “I was raised to please people in authority and I’d also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years.

“So when the producer of Tipping The Velvet said, ‘We chose you because we knew you’d swing naked from the nearest chandelier’, I should have realised he wasn’t offering me the role because I was deeply important and talented. “Now I’ve done the graft and I’ve worked with great directors and actors, I feel a lot more prepared to handle the limelight and make the right choices in my career because God knows that I’ve made some dodgy ones.” Nearly 40 years earlier, Stirling’s mother was faced with something similar when she played Emma Peel, the high-kicking spy in a leather catsuit. Dame Diana told one interviewer: “There is always one thing that turns you into an icon, an iconic image, in my case a catsuit. But the icon 40 years later doesn't really want to know because it's not relevant to me. “I was grateful because it catapulted me into stage stardom. It was good. I'm not ashamed of it. But I only did it for two years. When it came out, I was suddenly famous. It was startling.

From being anonymous, I was mobbed.” Stirling, 35, concentrated on theatre after Tipping The Velvet and has garnered two Olivier Award nominations. Her next screen role is a 1950s-set ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, in which she plays a former codebreaker who reunites with former colleagues to solve a series of murders. She and Dame Diana, 74, recently worked together for the first time. They will appear in a forthcoming episode of Doctor Who, called The Crimson Horror. Last year, Stirling left acting temporarily and took a job as a barmaid. She worked in a pub after splitting from her fiance, Oliver Chris, a fellow actor. “I went and pulled pints in a pub for five months. I cleared vomit off the stairs and got leered at by all sorts of unsuitable men. But the camaraderie was fantastic and time out from everything was exactly what I needed,” she said. Of the broken engagement, she said: “I loved him and I wanted to make him happy but, actually, if every time somebody asks you about your wedding plans you burst into tears, then you are probably not doing OK.

And every bone in my body and every instinct was telling me that this marriage wasn’t right.” Rachael Stirling: The rebel with natural assets | Metro News Rachael Stirling: The rebel with natural assets metrowebukmetro Monday 8 Nov 2010 4:21 pm Famed for playing a cross-dressing lesbian and for her famous mother, mischievous actress Rachael Stirling tells Metro about her forthcoming roles for screen and stage. Rachael Stirling is starring in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband ‘Look at you, with all your scribbled notes!’ giggles Rachael Stirling, pointing at my notebook. ‘The last person who interviewed me had just three lines on his. I told him: “Hmm. You’ve clearly done your homework. Not!” But you – you’re so squarey.’ One wonders if those brief notes included ‘Diana Rigg’ and ‘gold body paint’, the latter sported by Stirling as cross-dressing lesbian Nan Astley in the BBC’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’s Tipping The Velvet. References to Stirling’s famous mother and her on-screen sapphic exploits cleave to the 33-year-old actress.

Yet the third line could have easily read: ‘Great actress, doesn’t take herself terribly seriously.’ For, while Stirling’s almond eyes and scalloped cheekbones make her the spitting image of her mum, where Rigg has a glamorous froideur, Stirling is all Malory Towers-style mischief. We’re here to talk about Stirling’s forthcoming West End appearance in Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. Stirling’s last West End outing was her fabulously spiky turn as the ghastly Rebecca in Michael Wynne’s thirtysomething comedy, The Priory, at the Royal Court, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award, but which one night also saw her slip on some spilled wine. ‘Oh f***, yes, I was wearing this short skirt and I went down like a luge,’ she says with a hoot of laughter. ‘I loved playing Rebecca, she was a total bitch. Most of the time I get these full-of-heart, wholesome birds. Quite why, I don’t know. Because anyone who knows me knows I am naughty.

I do bad things.’ She is, sadly, playing the wholesome bird in An Ideal Husband, as the loyal wife whose idyllic notion of her husband as an upstanding MP is shattered when an old acquaintance, Mrs Cheveley (Samantha Bond), blackmails him over a previous financial misdemeanour. You suspect Stirling, with her witty, waspish warmth, hankers to play the manipulative Cheveley, who ‘has all the best lines’. Yet she is full of enthusiasm for the play, arguing that its portrait of an aspiring politician caught with his hand in the honey pot is very pertinent. ‘Wilde’s witticisms joyously tickle your eardrum and your brain but at the heart of this is a much more complicated moral plot,’ she says. ‘Anyway, I’m not playing the wife as particularly passive. I’m not very good at passive.’ Stirling has spent most of this year either on stage, as an acclaimed Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream opposite Judi Dench, or before the camera, shooting the BBC’s forthcoming version of DH Lawrence’s Women In Love and the film adaptation of Paul Torday’s Salmon Fishing In The Yemen with Ewan McGregor.

Women In Love is another earthy, gritty drama of the sort fearless Stirling relishes, and which, yes, is another undeniably nudy exploration of love and sex. ‘It’s quite hard core,’ Stirling agrees. ‘There’s a small scene in An Ideal Husband where someone has to get a tiny bit of her bottom out and I sat in the rehearsal hot with shame, not daring to say I was about to be on TV carousing stark naked in the countryside.’ Does she get anxious about taking her clothes off? ‘Of course. I’m older now than when I did Tipping The Velvet and your body changes, it brings new insecurities. But In Women In Love I don’t look like a supermodel, I look like a normal human being. At one point I had to run naked into this freezing cold lake in the moonlight. It was quite liberating, actually. All the women in make-up came up to me and told me how jealous they were. There should be more swimming naked in moonlit lakes.’ She decided she wanted to act partly as an act of rebellion, since her mother was always adamant her daughter wasn’t going to become an actress.

‘I can’t say what I learned from her because, at the end, of the day she’s a mum,’ she says. ‘I felt very loved as a child, though. I think that’s where children get their confidence from.’ Her plan is simply to keep going until she’s 70. ‘I’ve never been a magazine cover girl, pitching up in borrowed dresses, so I don’t worry about the ageing thing,’ she says. ‘I just love the job. I wake up all bushy tailed.’ An Ideal Husband opens on Wednesday at London’s Vaudeville Theatre. More Rachael Stirling Pics - Rachael Stirling Photo Gallery - 2017 - Magazine Pictorials. Movie Stills. Event Photos. Red Carpet Pictures 1 Profile Bio Text Rachael Atalanta Stirling was born on May 30th, 1977, to Yorkshire actress Diana Rigg and Scottish landowner and businessman Archibald Hugh Stirling. Her parents later married in 1982. Rachael grew up partially in Scotland and partially in London, but still considers Scotland to be her true home.

She had a very normal, happy childhood, and was in no way exposed to the showbiz lifestyle that came with her mother`s career. At the age of eleven, she started at Wycombe Abbey girls' school in Buckinghamshire, England, as a boarder. After graduating from secondary education, Rachael began at The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She completed a degree in History of Art, and also took a keen interest in drama. She was a member of the National Youth Theatre and made her stage debut in Othello in the mid-nineties. Her screen debut came a year later, when she appeared in the British comedy film Still Crazy. She didn`t have a large part, but she claims to have learnt a lot from the other actors during the production of the film. She has since appeared alongside stars such as Mira Sorvino (The Triumph of Love), Johnny Lee Miller (Complicity), and Keeley Hawes (Othello, Complicity, and Tipping the Velvet) and states that she would like to do more good, low-budget films. In 2003, Rachael won The Sir James Carreras Award For Outstanding New Talent at the Variety Club Awards for her performance in Tipping the Velvet.

As well as being a very talented actress, Rachael is highly skilled in horse-riding/jumping and can speak Russian. She smokes, swears a lot, is well-known for her deep, velvety voice and blunt attitude, and is often mistaken for actress Martine McCutcheon. In her free time, she plays for a women`s football team in London. Rachael is currently living alone in her Victorian cottage in West London, after breaking up with long-term boyfriend, DJ John Lycett-Green, in 2003. High School Wycombe Abbey girls` school in Buckinghamshire, England, as a boarder University BA (2:1) in History of Art from Edinburgh University Official Websites Dating Profile AutoText {"version":"2.07","timestamp":"2017-01-14 08:38:36","bio":" Rachael Stirling<\/topic> is a 39 year old English Actress.

Born Rachael Atalanta Stirling on 30th May, 1977 in London, England, UK and educated at Wycombe Abbey girls` school in Buckinghamshire, England, as a boarder, she is famous for Tipping the Velvet, Still Crazy in a career that spans 1997 - present and 1997–present.

Her zodiac sign is Gemini.","relationships":{"status":"Married","summary":" Rachael Stirling<\/topic> has been in 3 relationships with 1 marriage, 1 engagement and 1 dating.","statement":" Rachael Stirling and Guy Garvey<\/topic> are married.","children":"","onscreen":" Rachael Stirling<\/topic> has been in an on-screen matchup with Aidan Gillen<\/topic> in Agatha Christie's Poirot<\/i> (1989)<\/span>.","last":51589512,"stats":{"all":{"count":3,"longest":{"length":"1826","name":"Rachael Stirling and Oliver Chris","url":"rachael-stirling-and-oliver-chris"},"shortest":{"length":"730","name":"Rachael Stirling and John Lycett-green","url":"rachael-stirling-and-john-lycett-green"},"total":3665},"married":{"count":1,"longest":{"length":"1109","name":"Rachael Stirling and Guy Garvey","url":"rachael-stirling-and-guy-garvey"},"shortest":{"length":"110

9","name":"Rachael Stirling and Guy Garvey","url":"rachael-stirling-and-guy-garvey"},"total":1109},"engaged":{"count":1,"longest":{"length":"1826","name":"Rachael Stirling and Oliver Chris","url":"rachael-stirling-and-oliver-chris"},"shortest":{"length":0,"name":null,"url":""},"total":1826},"dating":{"count":1,"longest":{"length":"730","name":"Rachael Stirling and John Lycett-green","url":"rachael-stirling-and-john-lycett-green"},"shortest":{"length":"730","name":"Rachael Stirling and John Lycett-green","url":"rachael-stirling-and-john-lycett-green"},"total":730},"encounter":{"count":0,"longest":{"length":0,"name":null,"url":""},"shortest":{"length":0,"name":null,"url":""},"total":0},"rumoured":{"count":0,"longest":{"length":0,"name":null,"url":""},"shortest":{"length":0,"name

":null,"url":""},"total":0}},"history":" She has been engaged to Oliver Chris<\/topic> (2009 - 2012)<\/span>.<\/p> Rachael Stirling<\/topic> has been in a relationship with John Lycett-green<\/topic> (2001 - 2003)<\/span>.<\/p>"},"lists":{"summary":" Rachael Stirling<\/topic> is a member of the following lists: Actresses from London<\/list>, The Rachael Stirling Picture Pages Tipping the Velvet Background: British actress Rachael Stirling, the daughter of actress Diana Rigg, is celebrated for her performance as Nan Astley in “Tipping the Velvet” (BBC, 2002), in which she was handed a Dallas OUT TAKES Award.

She recalled, “It was horrendous after I appeared in 'Tipping the Velvet.’ I didn't work for eight months because I kept being sent scripts, the details of which I'll spare you.” Stirling is also known for playing Young Rebeccah in “In the Beginning” (2000), Griselda Clement in “Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage” (2004) and Veronica Burton in “Boy Meets Girl” (2009). On the wide screen, Stirling has acted in a number of films since her debut in 1998's “Still Crazy.” Her film credits include “Maybe Baby” (2000), “The Triumph of Love” (2001), “Freeze Frame” (2004), “Dangerous Parking” (2007), “The Young Victoria” (2009) and “Centurion” (2010). Stirling kicked off her career on stage with the role of Desdemona in “Othello” (1996).

She has since appeared in the stage productions “A Woman of No Importance,” John Osborne's “Look Back in Anger,” “Theater of Blood” and “Anna in the Tropics.” Stirling lived with her DJ boyfriend, John Lycett-Green, until September 2003. They are no longer together. She mentions Bob Dylan's “Lay Lady Lay” as her favorite song because it reminds her of her mother. Diana Rigg's Child Childhood and Family: “It's such a boring cliché to be the daughter of an actress. I'm a living, walking, breathing, smoking cliché!” Rachael Stirling The only child of actress Diana Rigg and Scottish millionaire businessman Archibald Stirling, Rachael Atalanta Stirling was born on May 30, 1977, in London, England. Her parents divorced in 1990. The marriage broke up when her father had an affair with actress Joely Richardson. Her father is the nephew of Colonel Sir David Stirling, the founder of the Special Air Service (SAS). She is the descendant of Charles II Stuart, King of England and Scotland, and a distant relative of Sir Winston Churchill and Rupert Everett.

Rachael spent her childhood in London and Scotland. She attended Wycombe Abbey School in Buckinghamshire, where she spent time in theater, and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, from which she earned a BA in art history. Rachael is very close to her half brothers William, a writer, and Ludovic, a designer, from her father's marriage to his first wife Charmian Montagu Douglas Scott. Rachael can speak Russian and is an accomplished equestrian. Boy Meets Girl Career: Rachael Stirling began her stage career with the U.K.'s National Youth Theatre in the mid 1990s. Her first major role arrived when she was cast as Desdemona in a revival of “Othello” (1996), which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor. She then portrayed Olive in a female version of “The Odd Couple” (1997) and Kate in “Dancing at Lughnasa” (1998). Stirling made her feature acting debut alongside Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail in the British movie “Still Crazy” (1998).

Directed by Brian Gibson, the film was nominated for Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical and Best Original Song - Motion Picture. On her first film role, she commented, “I got this film 'Still Crazy.' I was so green that I didn't even know what they meant when they said 'You're wrapped.' I went back to my caravan. They found me when they were going round to lock up.” In the new millennium, Stirling played the supporting role of Joanna in “Maybe Baby” (2000), a comedy written and directed by Ben Elton based on his novel “Inconceivable.” She then worked with Jonny Lee Miller, Brian Cox, Keeley Hawes and Paul Higgins in the thriller “Complicity” (2000), an adaptation of Iain Banks' novel of the same name. She made her American television debut with the NBC adventure “In the Beginning” (2000), opposite Alan Bates, Jacqueline Bisset, Martin Landau, David Warner and her mother, Diana Rigg. In the film, she played young Rebeccah. Also in 2000, she portrayed Frankie in “Helpless” at Donmar Warehouse in London.

Stirling was next cast as Becky in the comedy “Redemption Road” (2001), starring Tony Bluto and Stephen Marcus, co-starred with Ioan Gruffudd, Natasha Little, Nick Moran, Imelda Staunton and Tom Wilkinson in the U.K. independent murder mystery “Another Life” (2001), written and directed by Peter Goodhew, and played Corine in the big screen adaptation of Marivaux's play “The Triumph of Love” (2001), opposite Mira Sorvino and Ben Kingsley. Still that year, she was cast as Lulu in a modern TV movie adaptation of Shakespeare's “Othello.” The production was directed by Geoffrey Sax and scripted by Andrew Davies. In 2002, Stirling became famous for her portrayal of Nancy Astley in a BBC three part television drama series titled “Tipping the Velvet,” which was adapted from the bestselling novel by Sarah Waters. The show received several awards and nominations, including a Television and Radio Industries Club (TRIC) award for TV Drama Program, a BAFTA nomination for Best Original Television Music and a GLAAD Media nomination for Outstanding Television Movie or Mini-Series.

For her good acting, the actress won the Best Actress Award at the 2003 Dallas OUT TAKES. Costars of the show included Keeley Hawes, Anna Chancellor and Jodhi May. The same year, she also costarred with John Hurt in the television thriller “Bait,” for director Nicholas Renton and writer Daniel Boyle. From 2003 to 2004, Stirling was seen in an episode of “Agatha Christie: Poirot” called “Five Little Pigs,” the psychological thriller “Freeze Frame,” which was written and directed by John Simpson and starred comedian Lee Evans, and the made for television film “Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage,” in which she memorably played Griselda Clement. In ITV's film “The Final Quest,” she portrayed Young Annabelle. In addition, Stirling performed in various stage productions. She played Hester Worsley in Oscar Wilde's “A Woman of No Importance” (Theatre Royal Haymarket, 2003) and Conchita in “Anna in the Tropics” (2004, Hampstead Theatre).

She went on to play Miranda Lionheart in a stage adaptation of “Theater of Blood” (National Theatre, 2005), Zenocrate in “Tambulaine” (Bristol Old Vic Theatre and Barbican Theatre, 2005) and Helena in John Osborne's “Look Back In Anger” (Theatre Royal, 2006). Stirling returned to television in 2005 when she landed the role of Marie Rambert in the based on balled TV film “Riot at the Rite,” opposite Adam Garcia, Alex Jennings and Aidan McArdle. The following year, she appeared as Guilean Hade in an American TV series pilot titled “Beyond,” starred as Julia Jugg in “The Haunted Airman,” a BBC TV film adapted from the 1948 psychological novel “The Haunting of Toby Jugg” by Dennis Wheatley, and guest starred as Nina Bailey in the BBC television series “Hotel Babylon.” 2006 also saw her play Martha in “The Truth,” a comedy directed and co-written by George Milton that starred William Beck, Amelia Bullmore, David Cann, Elaine Cassidy, Stephen Lord and Elizabeth McGovern.

The talented thespian next teamed up with Peter Howitt, Saffron Burrows, Sean Pertwee, Alice Evans and Tom Conti for the 2007 drama “Dangerous Parking,” adapted from Stuart Browne's novel of the same name. The film was scripted and directed by Peter Hewitt, who won the Best Director Award at the 2007 Tokyo International Film Festival for his effort. Meanwhile on stage, she performed in Shakespeare's “The Taming of the Shrew” (as Kate) and Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard” (as Yelena, both produced at Wilton's Music Hall in London). After playing Zoe Kenneth in an episode of ITV's detective series “Lewis,” called “Life Born of Fire,” Stirling portrayed Eve Cornell on a “Minder” episode titled “Thank Your Lucky Stars” (2009). She then starred as Veronica Burton, opposite Martin Freeman as Danny Reed, in the British miniseries “Boy Meets Girl,” which ran for most of May 2009. On the big screen, she was seen as the Duchess of Sutherland on “The Young Victoria” (2009).

The film was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Julian Fellowes and co-produced by Martin Scorsese. It starred Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and Rupert Friend as Prince Albert. At the 2010 Academy Awards ceremony, “The Young Victoria” was nominated for Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Makeup and Best Achievement in Costume Design and won the latter category. Blunt received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama for her work. Recently, in 2010, Stirling portrayed Drusilla in the British action movie “Centurion,” which was written and directed by Neil Marshall. She also served as a makeup artist for the 15 minute short film “Mosa,” directed and co-penned by Ana Moreno. The film was screened at the 24th BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival on March 21, 2010.

Awards: 10 British Acting Families (Who Are Not the Redgraves) | Anglophenia | BBC America 10 British Acting Families (Who Are Not the Redgraves) Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling in 'Crimson Horror.' (BBC America) Copy the link below By Rachel Marie Paquin | 4 years ago Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling in ‘Crimson Horror.’ (BBC America) This week Doctor Who fans will get to see mother-daughter duo Dame Diana Rigg and Rachael Stirling in “The Crimson Horror.” The actresses will also be playing a mother-daughter pair in the show with Rigg as Winifred Gillyflower and Stirling as Ada Gillyflower. This is not the first British family affair in show business, let alone on Doctor Who (see Peter Davison and daughter Georgia Moffet…and son-in-law David Tennant). Many British acting legends have produced offspring that are also famous, such as Charlie Chaplin and his descendants (including actress Oona Chaplin) and Rosemary Harris and her daughter Jennifer Ehle.

And who can forget Edward Fox‘s clan, which includes daughter Emilia, son Freddie, brother James, and nephew Laurence (who happens to be married to Doctor Who‘s Billie Piper)? But the prime example for this phenomenon is the legendary Redgraves. With Sir Michael Redgrave as the beginning of the show business line, his daughter Vanessa Redgrave is the current matriarch. Her sister Lynn, brother Corin, daughters Joely and Natasha Richardson and niece Jemma Redgrave (Doctor Who‘s Kate Stewart) also followed in the family footsteps. (Irish actor Liam Neeson is also tied to this family tree as the widower of Natasha.) Below are nine other British acting families with whom you might not be as familiar. The Troughton Family From Left to Right: Patrick Troughton (BBC), his son David (BBC), and his sons Jim (Press Association via AP Images) and Sam (Rex Features via AP Images) Staying with the Doctor Who thread for just a bit longer, Patrick Troughton, who portrayed the Second Doctor, spawned a series of stars. His son David Troughton has appeared in numerous TV shows such as The Cafe and The Casuality 1900s as Hurry Fenwick.

David’s son Jim plays cricket for Warwickshire while his other son Sam also acts and played Much in Robin Hood. Harry Melling, who played Dudly Dursley in the Harry Potter series, is also the grandson of Troughton. The Scales/West Family Left to Right: Prunella Scales and Timothy West (Yui Mok/PA Wire) and their son Samuel West (Jon Furniss/Invision) Prunella Scales is best known for playing Sybil Fawlty opposite John Cleese in Fawlty Towers. Her husband Timothy West starred in Brass and Bleak House. Their son Samuel is currently in the new show Mr. Selfridge that stars Jeremy Piven. He portrays the character Frank Edwards. Timothy West’s father, Lockwood West, was also in the acting business. The Macdonald/Knightley Family Left to Right: Will Knightley (BBC), his wife Sharman Macdonald (Rex Features via AP Images) and their daughter Keira (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP) Since 1969 Will Knightley has been acting in television.

A notable role of his includes Doctor Mortimer in the 1982 mini series The Hounds of Baskervilles. While his wife Sharman Macdonald has appeared on screen, she has taken to screenwriting. In 2008 she wrote the script for The Edge of Love, which starred their daughter Keira Knightley. Keira has taken the Knightley star higher with her roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and Anna Karenina. The Irons Family Left to Right: Jeremy Irons (Rex Features via AP Images) and his son Max (Todd Williamson/Invision/AP) Currently, Jeremy Irons can be seen on Showtime drama The Borgias where he plays the family patriarch Rodrigo Borgia. Irons also provided the voice for Scar in Disney’s The Lion King. His son Max has followed in his silver screen footsteps. Moviegoers have most recently seen Max in the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer’s The Host where he portrayed Jared Howe. Max’s mother is actress Sinéad Cusack.

The Smith/Stephens Family Left to Right: Dame Maggie Smith (Ian West/PA Wire) and her son Toby Stephens (Jon Furniss/Invision/AP) There is no Anglophenia reader who doesn’t know of Dame Maggie Smith. Whether it is as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter series or as the Dowager Countess of Grantham on Downton Abbey, Smith is a beloved figure in British television and film. She married fellow actor Robert Stephens, who starred opposite Smith in the 1969 film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. The two had two sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin. Toby acts on stage, in television and in film. In the 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, he played Edward Fairfax Rochester and the Bond villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 film Die Another Day. Larkin is also an actor. The Law/Thompson Family Left to Right: Phyllida Law (BBC) and daughter Emma Thompson (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) While Emma Thompson may be the more well-known name in the family, her mother has an equally impressive career.

Phyllida Law has starred in Kingdom alongside Stephen Fry and The Time Machine with Guy Pearce. Mother and daughter were in the 1993 version of Much Ado About Nothing together. Thompson has starred in numermous films including Howards End, which won her an Oscar; Love Actually opposite Alan Rickman; and the Harry Potter series. Emma’s sister Sophie Thompson is also an actress. The Carlton/Ventham/Cumberbatch Family Left to Right: Timothy Carlton and Wanda Ventham (BBC) and their son Benedict Cumberbatch (Matt Sayles/Invision/AP) He plays Sherlock on the eponymous show and will soon be in theaters as John Harrison in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Little did we know that Benedict Cumberbatch’s parents were also in show business. For more on their careers, take a look at our recent article focusing on their lives. The Fleeshman/Jenkins Family Left to Right: David Fleeshman (BBC), his wife Sue Jenkins (BBC) and their son Richard (Andrew Toth/PatrickMcMullan.com/Sipa USA) All three have appeared in Coronation Street where Richard Fleeshman played Craig Harris for four years.

Richard got to share the screen with father David Fleeshman in the TV series All the Small Things in 2009. Richard has broken away from the TV scene where his parents still work and is now in musicals. His breakout role was in Legally Blonde on the West End as Warner Huntington III, and he also starred in Ghost as Sam Wheat. The Allen Family Left to Right: Keith Allen (BBC), his daughter Lily (Rex Features via AP Images) and his son Alfie (Matt Sayles /Invision/AP) Family patriarch Keith Allen has acted both on the silver screen and TV. He played Mr. Marlish in the 2001 film The Others and held the role of Sheriff of Nottingham in the BBC show Robin Hood. His daughter Lily went down the musical path instead. She has released two albums “Alright, Still” and “It’s Not Me, It’s You.” Some of her most popular songs include “Smile,” which was covered on the popular show Glee, and “F*** You.” She also has a song titled “Alfie” about her actor brother who is best known for his role as Theon Greyjoy on Game of Thrones.

Who is your favorite family in the British acting business? Rachael Sterling only realised her mother Diana Rigg was famous from people staring | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV | Daily Express CELEBRITY NEWS Rachael Sterling only realised her mother Diana Rigg was famous from people staring ACTRESS Rachael Sterling only realised Diana Rigg was famous when she cottoned on as to why so many admiring glances were being cast in the direction of her mother. 12:13, Tue, Dec 1, 2015 | UPDATED: 13:45, Tue, Dec 1, 2015 GETTY Rachael Stirling only realised her mother was famous when people stared at her "When I was young I was only aware that she was famous because pervy dads kept staring at her!” says the 38-year-old, who is currently appearing as a bankers wife in BBC 1 Drama Capital which starts tonight (Dec 1). "But also I would be holding her hand and people would look and point. So I was aware of that but she was very good at keeping work separate and so I wasn't a kind of stage daughter or child particularly.

I used to just scowl at people and think 'Go away and leave us alone, she's my mother!' I felt defensive and protective of her more than anything." Related articles Rachael Stirling, Medea, interview - Telegraph Theatre News Rachael Stirling, Medea, interview Rachael Stirling tells Dominic Cavendish about Mike Bartlett's Medea, as she takes on her mother Diana Rigg's iconic role. Diana Rigg's daughter, Rachael Stirling, is to star in her mother's iconic role of Medea. Photo: Manuel Harlan Follow It was hailed as “the crowning role” of her career, “the performance which has restored her to the very summit of her own hyper-achieving generation of actresses”. I suspect that few who saw Diana Rigg’s award-winning Medea for Jonathan Kent at the Almeida 20 years ago have forgotten that performance. The coolly determined way the spurned heroine avenged the infidelity and ingratitude of her husband Jason by poisoning his new bride, the latter’s father, Creon, and then slaughtering her own children was terrifying.

Who could erase the image of that clenched, wounded creature pounding the metal wall of the set in fiery passion? I can’t – nor can the actress Rachael Stirling. “God, the noise of that wall,” she says. “The sound of it – that rumble – it felt so Greek. You could imagine it coming at you from more than 2,000 years ago, from Euripides’ time.” Stirling has good reason to recall the show in detail. As the daughter of its roundly applauded star, she caught up with it many times. Next week she steps out in the title role of Mike Bartlett’s Medea, a production from the Headlong touring company that catapults the tragedy into the modern day; the wretched protagonist now lives on a newbuild estate and the first line of the adaptation is “Yeah”. “We’re calling it the Ikea Medea!”, Stirling, 35, says jovially. Related Articles Rachael Stirling: I wish I'd asked my mother about starring in a lesbian drama 27 Aug 2012 Some stop-off points for this revival aren’t exactly glamorous.

Watford Palace – co-producing with Glasgow Citizens – isn’t the Wyndham’s, scene of Rigg’s West End triumph. Even so, the pressure of following in your mother’s footsteps must be incredible. Stirling – who takes her surname from her father Archie, a Scottish businessman whose marriage to Rigg ended in 1990 – rolls her eyes. For a moment I fear she might do what Medea did to her brother – chop me into pieces. “I could look over that particular precipice and find myself wanting – or I could just go, 'I have total faith in this version and it needs to be told – and, quite rarely, I think I’m the right person to play this version of her.’ ” She says this forcefully but with well-spoken friendliness. “We’re going to cross paths – how could we not? There are only so many brilliant female parts. It’s like we’re both electricians.

At some point we’re going to come across the same kind of fixture.” Although she enjoyed media coverage 10 years ago when she appeared in the BBC adaptation of Tipping The Velvet, Sarah Waters’s Victorian lesbian novel – “I woke up famous for about a minute, then stopped being famous again” – she seems sanguine about being far less well-known than Dame Diana. “By the time she was my age she was the most photographed woman in the world. That’s not the trajectory my career has gone on. I was never the ravishing juvenile. As I get older, I get better, that’s all I know. I find the idea that some kids go into acting because of their parents butt-clenchingly embarrassing. I’ve gone out of my way to prove myself as a separate being. I don’t want to be seen as a subset of someone else.” She has set herself up for more mother-daughter comparisons by agreeing to appear opposite her mother in a forthcoming episode of Doctor Who. But how could she not? It was written by her pal Mark Gatiss, who floated the idea at the Donmar while Stirling and he were playing in The Recruiting Officer.

Sworn to secrecy, all she can reveal is that “it’s joyously camp. We take the piss out of ourselves. Steven Moffat said at the meeting, 'I didn’t think Mark Gatiss could get any camper – then I read The Crimson Horror!’ The minute we got out of the car to go on set, about a gazillion tweets had been posted about it”. That’s not the kind of future she’s angling for: she’d rather sink her teeth into Medea. “I got sweaty with excitement at the thought of playing her – she’s so articulate, intelligent and witty, she has nothing to lose, she has no fear.” She pauses, beams: “I’ve said I’m going to have to retire after this because when is it ever going to get this good again?” Maybe that’s a question worth popping the way of her beloved ma. Medea is at the Citizens, Glasgow (0141 429 0022) until 13 October and then touring.

Touring info: headlongtheatre.co.uk Rachael Stirling: ¿Being Diana Rigg¿s daughter does have its disadvantages¿ | Daily Mail Online comments The actress tells us why she’s had to work doubly hard to prove herself... Rachael says she 'didn’t grow up or learn how to fully serve myself until I got my head down in the theatre. But now I’ve done the graft’ Rachael has made her way to our photo shoot, on a wet Wednesday in London’s Chalk Farm, wearing green wellies and an oilskin jacket teamed with a lace and chiffon dress. The outfit seems to sum her up perfectly. On the one hand, she’s a willowy, swan-necked belle with a cut-glass accent. On the other, she’s a proper mucker – funny, open, disarmingly honest, with a terrific line in outrageous swearing. Celia Johnson (circa Brief Encounter) meets builder’s mate. She’s never been tempted to modify her vocab or diction to fit in with current fashions. So, you say ‘great’, she says ‘divine’. You say, ‘Mum and Dad’, she says, ‘Ma and Pa’.

Her Ma, in case you haven’t guessed from those coat-hanger cheekbones, is Dame Diana Rigg, who karate-kicked her way into 1960s legend as the leather-clad Avengers star Emma Peel. Her Pa is Archie Stirling, millionaire farmer and businessman and also Laird of the Scottish Keir estate. She’s descended from acting royalty on one side and can track her ancestry to King Charles II on the other. ‘I realise I’ve come from quite a spoilt and privileged background,’ she says. Still, she’s made it as an actress entirely on her own terms. Now aged 35, she started as a teenager at the National Youth Theatre, branching out later into TV and film. Her roles have included the lesbian Nan Astley in controversial TV drama Tipping the Velvet and Ursula Brangwen in the BBC’s adaptation of Women in Love. She’s recently had two Olivier nominations for her roles on stage in The Priory and An Ideal Husband. Last year, however, she experienced a personal and professional crisis after ending her engagement with Oliver Chris (the actor who’s been playing Stanley Stubbers alongside James Corden in the stage sensation One Man, Two Guvnors).

As a result, she took five months away from the spotlight. She’s back now, better than ever, and will be appearing with her mother in an episode of Doctor Who next year. Before that, she stars with Anna Maxwell Martin, Julie Graham and Sophie Rundle in the three-part ITV drama The Bletchley Circle. Set in the 1950s, it’s the story of four female code-breakers forced to return to their humdrum domestic lives at the end of the war. In 1951, several years after the hostilities have ended, they reunite to solve a series of murders. Here Rachael talks about the role, growing up with a famous mum and why life is suddenly looking so much rosier… I’m aware how annoying it is when the kids of actors think it’s a rite of passage to go into the profession’ I was only vaguely aware when I was little that Ma was famous. I can remember people pointing at her in Marks & Spencer. But she kept work and home very separate. I was never taken on film sets as a child. When I did my first film, Still Crazy, everyone assumed I must know what they meant, for example, by ‘Hit your mark’.

But I didn’t have a clue that it meant walking to the spot on the floor that was marked by coloured tape and not straying from it. The first time I was told I’d ‘wrapped’ [movie jargon for finished for the day], I sat in my caravan until they came to lock up. It was pretty tragic. The 50s was the last decade to embrace ‘gels’ with posh accents like mine, so I was right at home playing Millie in The Bletchley Circle. She’s upper-class bohemian, bombastic, demonstrative. I immediately thought, ‘I can play her!’ Usually, I’m good at talking myself out of parts and others into them – but this time I knew the part should be mine. Rachael as Millie in upcoming series The Bletchley Circle It’s rare to be on a set that’s so female-orientated. The four of us had a brilliant time every day, howling with laughter but also working our backsides off. We loved the first assistant director and bought him a farewell bottle of champagne. He said, ‘It’s been a learning curve, girls.

I know more about the female anatomy now than I ever thought I would – and I was present at both my daughters’ births!’ My instinct is to surround myself with the company of wise, witty, wonderful women, and I have a great bank of female friends of all ages. I love men too. Bring them on. But in terms of shared experience and the common language of life, I’ll hang out with women every time. One of my co-stars, Julie Graham, and I are old mates. We shared a dressing room years ago during my first play at the Donmar Warehouse. She took me under her wing. She’d say, in her best Scottish Prime-of-Miss-Jean-Brodie accent, ‘Rachael! Why are you wearing such horrible grey underwear?! A juvenile lead can NOT be wearing underwear like that!’ Then we’d go shopping. The tabloids had a field day with Tipping the Velvet, which was great for the viewing figures but not necessarily for the actors involved. It was a brilliant project and I don’t regret it, but there wasn’t a lot of aftercare and the long-term effects weren’t considered. Nobody sat down and said that you might find it hard to be taken seriously as an actor afterwards.

I should have asked my ma’s advice, but I was such a proud little bunny in those days. I was raised to please people in authority and I’d also come from a sheltered boarding school, so I was very naive and young for my years. Even now, at 35, I think there are youngsters in their 20s who are much more streetwise than me. So when the producer of Tipping the Velvet said, ‘We chose you because we knew you’d swing naked from the nearest chandelier,’ I should have realised he wasn’t offering me the role because I was deeply and importantly talented. I didn’t grow up or learn how to fully serve myself until I got my head down in the theatre. But now I’ve done the graft and I’ve worked with great directors and actors, I feel a lot more prepared to handle the limelight and make the right choices in my career because God knows that I’ve made some dodgy ones. In May last year I broke off my engagement with Ol [Oliver Chris]. I loved him and I wanted to make him happy but, actually, if every time somebody asks you about your wedding plans you burst into tears, then you are probably not doing OK.

And every bone in my body and every instinct was telling me that this marriage wasn’t right. People told me I’d been brave to end it. But I thought, ‘What a total b**** I am!’; I did not like myself at all. But if I’d married I’d have made everybody’s life a million times worse. 'Following my ma [The Avengers star Diana Rigg, left] into acting makes me a boring, walking cliché. It’s why I’ve worked so hard to prove myself,' says Rachael Sometimes you just have to surf the ‘crapola’ of life and I had a funny old year of doing just that. The break-up coincided with a weird time in my career. During 2010 and 2011, I’d been nominated for two Oliviers, but nothing being offered afterwards made my juices flow. I thought, ‘I’m too old and too talented to be doing mediocre stuff.’ But then I went and pulled pints in a pub for five months. I cleared vomit off the stairs and got leered at by all sorts of unsuitable men. But the camaraderie was fantastic and time out from everything was exactly what I needed.

I was lured back to work by the small but brilliant role of Anna in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman [starring Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart]. And everything has been going well since then. It’s important to give something back because acting is a life of privilege. So during that year I also started working on Saturdays at the Butterfly School near where I live in West London. It’s for children who are struggling with literacy. They are amazing and challenging. I’ve learnt as much from them as they ever learnt from me. A year after I broke up with Ol, I now feel I’ve finally got my wiggle back. I’m footloose and fancy free and having some very nice flirtations, thank you. That’s not to say I couldn’t fall in love again, and I do definitely want children. My ma always says that women are lionesses, so when the right person comes along I’ll know he’s the one I should have my cubs with. I think there’s time. Ma was 39 when she had me so I’ve never thought it was bad to have children later. My pa is a brilliant, charming man. We go out and play together and laugh a lot.

He has a twinkle in his eye. I always seem to choose guys who are younger than me, so I don’t think I have a father fixation. But I do like similarly masculine alpha males, probably because I’m a bit feisty myself and I like a man who makes me feel like a woman. Despite their divorce, my parents are now great friends. Ma always said to me, ‘I never want you to have to choose between us.’ And I never did. Last Christmas was spent in Scotland with my ma [she is still single], my pa, wife number three, my seven-year-old half-brother from that marriage and one of my two half-brothers from Pa’s first marriage. We’re a happy, eccentric, modern family, although when there are exes and booze involved, the sparks always fly. Rachael with her mum Diana in February When I was in the movie The Young Victoria three years ago, I’d given up smoking which accounts for the bloat. I was the slightly porky maid-in-waiting, not helped by that terrible Victorian ‘spaniel’s ears’ hair do.

I’d be standing grumpily behind Emily Blunt, thinking, ‘Why haven’t I got her role?!’ I took up ballet immediately afterwards and I’m pretty good at it. I can pirouette, believe me. My body shape has changed, too, especially since I started combining it with boxing a year ago. I go to a great little gym around the corner and parry for an hour and a half at a time with the owner’s beautiful son. I’m leaner, stronger, full of energy and I’m no longer a hostage to my diet. Ewan McGregor said our sex scene in the recent movie Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was his favourite ever. I was playing his dour, sexless Scots wife, Mary. We were wearing our sensible pyjamas and at the moment of orgasm he had to grunt, ‘Ock, Mary, thank you. Happy anniversary.’ We couldn’t stop laughing. The landscape of Scotland is in my veins, and even though I was born in London and live there now, a part of me is pure purple thistle. My class and accent have probably lost me as many roles as they’ve got me.

At one time all actors had posh accents, but now there’s enough from every class to fill the appropriate roles. So the minute I open my mouth I’m cast as Millie. I’ll never be the go-to actress for, say, Ken Loach or Mike Leigh. But I’d like to be. Following my ma into acting makes me a boring, walking cliché. I’m aware how annoying it must be for others when the children of actors – some of whom can’t act at all – think it’s a rite of passage to go into the profession. It’s why I’ve worked so hard to prove myself. Ma and I had never worked together. Then my mate Mark Gatiss, who writes Doctor Who, asked if we would consider appearing in an episode together. I said, ‘Duh!! Yuh!!! I’ll ask my ma.’ But I knew that she’d say yes. We’ve been offered many joint projects but they were always predictable and clichéd. Our roles in Doctor Who (The Crimson Horror), however, are so celebratory, camp and tongue-in-cheek. It takes the p*** out of us wonderfully. Driving back to London from the set in Cardiff, we stopped at a petrol station in the pouring rain.

She looked at me and said, ‘Rachael, I’m so proud of you. This has been an utter joy.’ I feel the same about her, of course. She’s 74 and still totally rocking it. We both got a bit teary. Especially me. This wasn’t just another actor paying me a compliment. She’s my ma. Can you imagine what that meant to me? The Bletchley Circle will be on ITV1 next month Stirling choices READING The Magus by John Fowles. It’s a way of prolonging the holiday I just had in Crete. I go back to the same little fishing village every year with one of my best friends, the actress Daisy Haggard. We play cards, eat Greek yoghurt and honey, dance around like idiots to music that we love and go naked moonlight swimming off the little pier just below our flat. We never tell anyone exactly where it is. LISTENING TO Beth Jeans Houghton & the Hooves of Destiny album Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose. It’s basically girl rock and I love it. STYLE ICON Katharine Hepburn is the epitome of grace, style and wit.

WATCHING ON TV I’m absolutely crazy about all kinds of music and I love all those documentaries about musicians. Recently I loved the BBC’s programmes on both Paul Simon and David Bowie. BEAUTY PRODUCT My Simple face wash. STUCK IN A LIFT WITH At the moment Matt Smith, because I’ve just finished filming Doctor Who with him and thought he was divine. FAVOURITE CITY Can I say London? I truly believe it’s the greatest city on earth. RECENTLY SPLURGED ON A picture by Rudi Patterson, an artist who lives near me in W10. He’s from the Caribbean and he creates these wonderful, bright, slightly naive paintings. It cost me under £300, which was a bargain, but then I’m not really a splurger. Right now, I have clothes that are too big for me, but instead of buying new ones, I’ll take them to this wonderful Polish seamstress that I’ve found. FAVOURITE DESIGNER Maria Grachvogel who has often come to my rescue if I have a red carpet do and nothing to wear. I adore everything that she does. Styling: David Hawkins at Frank Agency. Make-up: Amanda Grossman at Frank Agency.

Hair: Jennie Roberts at Naked Artists. Blazer, Alexander Wang, from Feathers. Trousers, Helmut Lang, from Feathers. Bra, Freya. Gloves, Dents, from Harrods. Boots, Blink

Question: Who is the famous mother of actress Rachael Stirling?
Answer: DIANA RIGG